According to well-informed Spanish sources, Jan Oblak will be away from football for three to four months.

Yesterday, five minutes before the end of the first half, Jan Oblak remained down on the grass after punching out a high cross in the penalty area, after what Villareal scored its second goal. Oblak was holding his left shoulder and needed the aid of his physiotherapist to leave the pitch. In the end Villareal won the match with 3:0.

The first X-rays and magnetic resonance at the FREMAP Majadahonda hospital in Madrid showed that Oblak dislocated his shoulder and suffered a so-called Bankart lesion, which means he has torn the front part of his shoulder capsule, where the joint capsule is attached to part of the shoulder blade.

The 23-year-old native of Škofja Loka already had smaller shoulder problems a few weeks ago after Slovenia’s match against England.

It now seems Oblak will miss the Champions League round of 16 head-to-head with Bayer Leverkusen, scheduled for the 21st of February and the 15th of March. And it was precisely against Bayer two years ago that Oblak seized his chance after the injury of team colleague Miguel Angel Moya. Ever since then Oblak has been Atletico’s number one goalkeeper.

If the predictions of a several-month absence turn out to be true, that means Oblak will not even be able to play for Slovenia in the World Cup qualification match against Scotland, where coach Srečko Katanec’s will lead the national team on the 26th of March. At the moment Slovenia’s second goalkeeper is Vid Belec. In the last couple of months the native of Maribor has mostly been on the bench for Capri in the Italian second football league. However, after the injury of goalkeeper Simone Colombi, Belec was the team’s goalie for two matches in a row for the first time this season.

M. R.; translated by K. J.